BILDERSTURM Filmproduktion GmbH

Germany 2026, 91 min
by Daniela Magnani Hüller

A film like a house full of dark chambers long closed. Yet every room will be opened: puppet shows, butterflies, colour, light! This autobiographical documentary debut sets out to deprive silence of its power. Fourteen years ago, the director survived an attempted femicide carried out by a schoolmate, who had harassed her before. An act whose subjective and objective inconceivability Daniela Magnani Hüller will not accept. In images of great sensitivity, she uncovers memories, makes her voice audible in voiceover, enabling herself to find a stronger, own perspective – on what happened, the present of the trauma, a future life without fear. She wants conversations to happen and conducts them in large spaces often shot with considerable distance, with a teacher, a school friend, a detective, the state prosecutor; trying to find out why each of them did (or did not) act the way they did. Matter-of-fact, consistent and impressively composed, she reconstructs events and failures and – years after the crime – poses the question of responsibility: to the individuals, the school, the justice system and society. Violence against women – the unfolding of an internal and external perspective. Source of Synopsis

2024, 104 min
by Doris Metz

Petra Kelly was one of the most influential political personalities of the 20th century, a figurehead of the peace movement and co-founder of the first green party to find success. Her life was one of achievements, its end a tragedy.Petra Kelly was one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century. In 1980, she co-founded the German Green Party, the world’s first green party to rise to prominence. She fought relentlessly for radical social change, disarmament and a society at one with nature. For Kelly, environment, peace and human rights issues were one. At the age of 44, she was murdered by her long-time friend and political companion. Raised by her mother and grandmother, she grew up in 1960s America and campaigned for Robert Kennedy’s election in the months before his assassination. Petra Kelly was convinced that a single person could change the world. Influenced by the American civil rights movement and Martin Luther King’s concept of “civil disobedience”, she campaigned to protect the environment and ban uranium mining, demonstrating solidarity with the peace movements in both the East and West. Today, her spiritual legacy is continued by many young climate activists. The issues that concerned her are more topical today than ever before. Close friends and companions talk about Kelly’s personal and political life for the first time. With previously unseen international film footage, the film paints a picture of a sensitive, unwavering woman who let no one -stand in her way. [NEW DOCS catalogue]

Germany, France 2023, 90 min
by Dorothe Dörholt

Who is responsible if AI turns out to be a curse rather than a blessing? Algorithms decide whether we are creditworthy, whether we are entitled to social welfare or even which partner is the right one for us. We expose the devastating consequences of algorithms taking control of our lives. From the young girl driven to anorexia by YouTube’s recommendation algorithm to the mother forced into hiding by a faulty safety assessment, the human cost of AI’s mistakes is devastating. It’s not just the technology that’s at fault – the real culprits are the developers and companies behind the algorithms.

Germany 2023, 90 min
by Julia Charakter

Korntal – a little town in the south of Germany, is the scene of the greatest abuse scandal ever to rock the Protestant Church. An estimated 150 former children from homes run by the Pietist Brotherhood have broken their silence: They are revealing the physical and mental horrors to which they were exposed. Many of them were victims of sexualized violence at an early age. The 9,000-person town have responded to the accusations with disbelief and denial. They cannot imagine that this could have happened in their God-fearing town. The film is sensitive portrait of 6 protagonists, who are telling their stories.

Germany 2022, 52 min
by Daniela Schmidt-Langels

Many famous people, from Albert Einstein and Picasso to Steven Spielberg are known to be dyslexic. Hardly any aspect of school-based learning has been researched as extensively as dyslexia over the last 130 years. But researchers still have no clear idea of what causes the condition and how it can be treated. The film shines a spotlight on the difficult and psychologically challenging situation faced by people with dyslexia in everyday life in Germany, Great Britain and France. It looks at success stories and highlights researchers’ tireless efforts to identify causes and find suitable therapies.

Germany 2022, 94 min
by Birgit Schulz

A smart and unsparing documentary portrait of art adviser Helge Achenbach. It starts with him being sentenced to jail for defrauding his clients for tens of millions. The emerging character is fascinatingly complex and controversial, brokering extremely expensive and giant artworks first to banks and corporations, then to celebrity billionaires. It's no wonder his life's story is closely related to the absurd developments of prices for modern art over the last forty years. [FFCGN 2022]

Switzerland, Germany 2020, 104 min
by Luzia Schmid

Prosperity on the one side, misery on the other: just how directly the two can be connected comes to light in Luzia Schmid’s film about the meteoric rise of her hometown of Zug upon becoming a tax haven.Swiss filmmaker Luzia Schmid traces the rise of her hometown of Zug and its townspeople, who have succeeded in becoming very rich by converting their town into one of the world’s leading tax havens. Even her immediate family is implicated in Zug’s politics and economy. And yet a tax haven is also part of the wider economy and thus we also learn about international rivalries in the tax game: the invention of the first shell company, the carefully guarded banking secrecy and the development of offshore tax shelters. “Race to the bottom” is a phrase often used to describe this destructive momentum, which, with tax scandals involving companies like Apple, Amazon and Starbucks, reached its low point in the financial crisis of 2008. In Zug, success came with its fair share of problems, too: shady commercial lawyers and commodities dealers settled down here, plundering Third World countries from their safe base in Switzerland. The town came to symbolise the injustices of this world. Luzia Schmid seeks out answers about morals and motivation and charts the town’s position in the international tax game. A business film with a personal take on the rise of a Swiss tax haven evolves into a radical and subtle reflection on double standards and collective repression.

Germany 2018, 90 min
by Antje Christ, Dorothe Dörholt

Today, Asia is „missing“ 170 million women. The fight for women as tradable commodities has begun.Asia is „missing“ 170 million women because parents are choosing to give birth to boys and aborting daughters. This „gendercide“ is the result of politically motivated population control policies imposed by the West more than 30 years ago. Today, millions of men of marriageable age are unable to find wives and more than ever before women are being traded like commodities. In China, mothers who were once expected to abort female foetuses are today desperately advertising their sons at marriage markets. In India, villagers who refuse to give birth to daughters themselves are pooling their money to buy a bride at auctions to marry one man but also serve other bachelors in the village. With the growing surplus of men, crime rates are rising and threatening the internal stability of these nations. Scientists expect other regions like Africa and the Arab world to follow suit as sex determination technology becomes ubiquitous and affordable. We are facing a humanitarian crisis which some scientists believe may threaten world peace. Zoning in on personal stories from South Korea, China, India and Vietnam, the film explores the regional and global consequences of this gender imbalance in Asia. With previously unseen archive material and eyewitness reports, the film also looks back at the years after the Second World War and examines the dubious role of international organisations and their influence on worldwide family planning. A revelatory documentary that weaves together elements of politics, economics and medicine, showing women – both then and now – as the plaything of political and criminal interest groups.

Germany 2018, 80 min
by Johanna Bentz, Sandra Dajani, Madeleine Dallmeyer, Nazgol Emami, Diana Menestrey, Camilo Colmenares, Khaled Nawal

How do we go about making films for children fleeing wars and crises? What can such films accomplish? What inspiration can the cinema give these children for their future? Can film work relieve suffering or even provide hope? Two years ago, the Goethe Institute launched the Missing Movies project. The plan is to shoot a number of nonverbal short films to be used in refugee camps. Following an international call for proposals, a group of 7 young filmmakers from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, Colombia and Iran were selected to tackle these questions. The initial ideas have led to the creation of seven outstanding cinematic concepts, each of which reflects a deep understanding for and addresses in its own highly unique way the needs of the refugee children – with genres ranging from short feature films and documentaries to animated productions. Each of the seven films, with dramaturgical input from Bildersturm, registers in its own unique way the needs of refugee children – in the form of feature films, documentary films and animation films. Each of these films examines a different aspect of life without a home or without a family, without friends, or without even without familiar toys – and ostensibly without a future either. And, for a period of 8 to 12 minutes, each of these short films offers a glimpse of a brighter future. One film opens a window to a more colourful world, another conveys the notion that a loss is guaranteed to be followed by a renewed sense of hope while others give the refugee children the necessary tools to regain their courage, acquire greater self-awareness and express themselves more freely. Birgit Schulz of Bildersturm has woven the seven short features into an episode film, adding Khaled Nawal’s documentary material from Lebanon, Jordan and Greece. In this way, the wishes and dreams of the children reflected in the episodes meet with a reality that appears timeless, without denying them a future. This creates a near-poetic melancholy that is repeatedly broken up by the energy of the children – an energy that knows no bounds the world over.Beyond borders – Stories of freedom & friendship is to be shown as an episode film (80 minutes in length) at festivals, in cinemas, refugee camps, schools, etc. around the world. The film has already attracted considerable interest and a number of children’s film festivals are planning to show it. Supporting programmes with accompanying material will be developed together with media educators. However, the individual films can also be shown individually, both in short film programmes and on television.The titles of the episodes are: · THE MAGNIFYING GLASS von Nazgol Emami · A THING ABOUT ME von Diana Menestrey und Camilo Colmenares · GIANT von Johanna Bentz · ABDULLAH von Khaled Nawal · THE MAGIC BALLOON von Sandra Dajani · SHADY von Nada Riad · THE BREAK von Madeleine Dallmeyer

Germany 2018, 90 min
by Gerhard Schick

Germany’s goalkeepers have been the envy of the football world for decades. DIE NUMMER EINS lets us re-live the unforgettable moments and scandals that have made legends of Oliver Kahn, Sepp Maier, Toni Schumacher, Jens Lehmann and Manuel Neuer. (DOK.fest Munich)

Germany 2017, 90 min
by Claudia Schmid

In Bangladesh, in Benin, in the DR Congo, yet also in Germany: violence against women is ever present.The film delves into the lives of women who have been subjected to horrific violence, yet managed to fight their way free. They talk about the violence that has been inflicted upon them, their struggle for survival, their hopes and their current attempts to build a new life. And the men? Many of them describe violence against women as a normal part of their everyday lives. If a woman has been hit, she deserved it. If she defends herself, he threatens to take away her children.Claudia Schmid spent intense moments with the protagonists. She captured images of their painfulmemories and dreams. It is only the strength of these women that allows them to break out of a multi-generational cycle of violence.90mins, 52mins or 45mins, Bengali/Fon/Mashi/English/French version with English or German subtitles available

Germany, Netherlands 2017, 90 min
by Karin Jurschick

Shortly after 9/11, the US Congress passed a law to protect US airlines from decades of civil law suits and created a fund for compensating victims of disasters who agreed not to sue. Lawyer and mediator Ken Feinberg had to decide how much money was to be received as compensation. He met family members personally doing thousands of interviews. He thought that the value of a life was an easy calculation: how high is the economic loss? How old was the person, but Feinberg discovered that facing those left behind was far less easy. This is Feinberg’s story of highly emotional dilemmas as told by himself, as he took the role of ‘Playing God.’ MORE ON FILMA film about a charismatic lawyer acting as an interface between capital and justice, about US politics and about people who have suddenly lost their loved ones, their health or their livelihood.Why is the life of a fire-fighter who died a hero in the Twin Towers on September 11 worth on average a million euros less than that of a stockbroker who lost his life in the same disaster? How much money should oil giant BP pay the countless fishermen on the Gulf of Mexico who are fighting for their livelihoods in the wake of the largest oil spill in history? How can hundreds of ailing Vietnam vets be compensated for their suffering, which stems from exposure to Agent Orange? These are questions that almost appear cynical, but not for America’s most famous compensation specialist: Ken Feinberg.After the attacks on 11 September 2001, the US Congress decided to pay compensation to all victims or their families who agreed not to go to court. ONE man was appointed to have sole responsibility for that money: lawyer and mediator Ken Feinberg.In 1984 the Agent Orange case made Feinberg a household name overnight: In the US 250,000 Vietnam veterans sued a number of chemical companies and demanded compensation for death, injury and disease. Feinberg successfully served as special master in the litigation.Hardly a national tragedy has befallen the USA without Feinberg being called upon to play his part. The film takes a close look at Ken Feinberg. Who is this man who is applauded as a modern-day King Solomon and criticised as a heartless Pay Czar? We accompany him on his current high-profile cases. We recall his most challenging cases. We speak with politicians who call in Feinberg when a new disaster strikes, and we interview friends and enemies. We also pay a visit to the victims’ families. Do they feel that they have been fairly treated by America’s “special master”?PLAYING GOD reveals what happens within our Western system of values when economic interests and people’s lives become intertwined by tragedy.

Germany 2017, 90 min
by Oliver Schwabe

With millions of records sold, the German band TOKIO HOTEL became a teenage sensation, first in Germany and then internationally. A close-up portrait of a band that has grown up and follows its own, highly individual path.At the age of nine, German twins Bill and Tom Kaulitz decided they wanted to become famous. By the time they were twelve, they had formed a band together with Gustav Schäfer and Georg Listing that went on to conquer the world as Tokio Hotel. They were admired, ridiculed, hated and adored… And they became a huge success: their albums went platinum in 60 countries, their concerts sold out and the androgynous Bill became a style icon. Rich and famous in their early twenties, the twins flew to Los Angeles in their private jet, leaving behind thousands of devoted fans and a life behind protective walls. They wanted their freedom back… but they had no idea what the future held. The film delves deep into the lives of the band members, accompanying Bill and Tom through Californian deserts and visiting Gustav and Georg in their hometown of Magdeburg. They talk about the price they paid for success, the inseparability of the twins, about love, sexuality, home and music. The band comes together in a Berlin studio to record their new album and prepare for their next world tour. With steely determination and a lifetime of experience, the musicians pursue their childhood dream: the pop fairytale that is Tokio Hotel…

2016, 90 min
by Claudia Schmid

A film about the unimaginable violence against women in the DR Congo and about the political and social system that casts a blind eye on these atrocities. Women are systematically exposed to the brutal practice of rape as a weapon of war. Claudia Schmid gives unknown women a voice and reveals the structures of violence in all their facets. She spent several months travelling through the DR Congo, meeting women in the most remote villages of the rebel territories and winning their trust. In the course of intense talks, the women disclose their traumatic experiences for the first time. In order to illustrate the very complexity of the structure underlying the violence, Claudia Schmid also asks family members about their perspectives and talks to them about their shame and the discrimination. Since sexual violence is a taboo topic, families hardly ever talk about their traumatic experiences. Claudia Schmid deeply immerses herself into the destructive forces by also asking Congolese men about their notion of rights and obligations of both sexes. The film condenses the stories of violence to a polyphonic fugue of different voices thereby determining the dramatic structure of the film.

2015, 52 min
by Hilka Sinning

Since the legalisation of Cannabis in 2014, the citizens of the US state of Colorado have been experiencing a 'green rush'. Meet players, beneficiaries and losers of this huge and new branch of industry.Not too long ago you would have been in serious trouble if you were caught in the tranquil US state of Colorado with marijuana in your pocket. But that was then and this is now: since the government decided that marijuana could be legally farmed, sold and consumed here, this cowboy state has been in the grip of a new gold fever. Marijuana tourists have been flocking to the capital city of Denver for a year now, and countless sales outlets are offering everything from joints to hash cookies. The political establishment is realising that it can no longer do without the bonanza created for the city and state by the producers, traders and established financial industry. We take a closer look at this 'green rush' and meet players, beneficiaries and losers of this huge, new branch of industry. We accompany a group of tourists on a city tour with a 'cannabis bus' and we talk to producers such as 43-year-old wholesaler Toni Fox. In the very first month following legalisation, her company recorded a turnover of almost 300,000 dollars. We interview medical scientists, stockbrokers and government employees. And we see how quickly the 'stoner romance' has yielded to the pressures of all-American business logic. In short, this is - if nothing else - a lesson in capitalism.

Germany 2014, 95 min
by Peter Scharf

Can a price be put on human life? The answer would seem to be "no": a human being is priceless, his worth cannot be determined in terms of money. The very idea appears to violate the principle of human dignity. "What am I worth?" The filmmaker asks it both of himself and of his protagonists throughout the world. He talks with healthcare economists and insurance brokers, politicians, scientists, organ donors and lawyers, discovering ethical minefields and an economic abyss... The audience is led into a world where the monetary calculation of human worth has long since become business as usual. The insights provided are as shocking as they are revealing; cruelty meets and mixes with absurdity and even dissolves at times into high comedy. - A road movie through the fascinating and bizarre world of those who appraise human worth.